Early Risers.

[Pacific231G]

I forgot to mention that I was very surprised yesterday that nobody broadcast the opening of the new memorial to British forces who died in the battle for Normandy. Fortunately,  Broadcasting House mentioned it and that it was going to be shown on line.

No veterans and families from Britain could go over so they had a service at the National Arboretum with a large screen relay of the opening ceremony from Ver-sur-Mer overlooking Gold Beach. I watched it on line and it was very moving but it seemed to almost be something of a private event, certainly quite low key and definltely not a state occasion.

 

The actual structure looks to be a magnificent memorial and, along with the names of all the forces under Brtish command  who died between D-Day and the liberation of Paris, very appropriately includes a memorial to the tens of thousands of French civilians who also died  during the battle for Normandy. The French ambassador was  in Staffordshire and the British ambassador and the French defence minister were at Ver-sur-Mer.

 

I've had a particular interest in the battle of Normandy, not because of any personal connectiion- my father was in Egypt and N. Africa- but because I made a series of short films about the preparations for D-Day  for the 40th anniversary and so met a lot of veterans who were then mostly middle aged   I look forward to when I'll be able to see the moument  for myself.

 

Watching the ceremony reminded me once again that, despite the antics of politicians, the things that unite us with France and our neighbours are far more important than what divides us. 

Edited June 7, 2021 by Pacific231G

[jonny777]

40 minutes ago, Pacific231G said:

Good noontime all.

For some reason I woke up feeling very unenergetic this morning. Anyway, as I needed to go to Tesco after running out of salad stuff,  I added that to my daily walk so got to about 5K. It's cooler today but I think it should still be warm enough for lunch in the garden.  Best friend is having a pre-op assessment tomorrow and terrified they'll find an excuse to not do the very much overdue second hip replacement she now desparately needs. Several other friends also seem to be in dark places just now so I can only be grateful I'm not. 

 

 

 

 

I am of the belief that some of the dark places come from a slow realisation that in the past we could stave off illness and death to a certain extent by careful attention to diet and exercise. Now, we can still do that, but visit premises away from our home and possibly pick up a potentially deadly virus without knowing. 

 

That might be an extreme scenario, but when one is of a depressive and pessimistic nature these things take on a much more worrying threat. 

[simontaylor484]

The thunder seems to have passed us by no rain either wecould do with it really.

 

Skip booked for Thursday to start the great clearout.

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

Not the right time of year for pruning due to the rising sap, could kill the tree, at least I've been using the dodge for decades and seem to get away with it lol.

I concur particularly if its an Acer.

[Andrew P]

Turned out nice again now, washing is on the line, Lunch has been had, (Banana Slimfast) and now time to rest the eyes for a while.

[BSW01]

4 hours ago, pH said:

It’s very kind of you to wish us this each day, but you do realize you’re talking to ERs, don’t you?

I know, it's just wishful thinking on my part. 

[jamie92208]

1 minute ago, BSW01 said:

I know, it's just wishful thinking on my part. 

I agree, Sanity is not the word that I would normally associate with ER's.

 

Jamie

[polybear]

3 hours ago, jonny777 said:

And why would anyone buy Kellogg's Bran Flakes at £2.50 for 750g, when the M&S version are 90p for 500g and taste just as good to me? Similarly, Sultana Bran Flakes - Kellogg's 500g for £2.99, M&S 500g for £1.40. 

 

Bear purchased Tesco Bran Flakes on Saturday @ £1-10 for 750g (so 73p for 500g) plus "The Growers Harvest" Sultanas (also from Tesco) @ 99p for 500g; Bear mixes them at 2 parts Flakes to 1 part Sultanas, so 375g of Sultanas to a box of Flakes.  If my sums are correct that gives £1-84 for 750g of DIY Sultana Bran - so £1.22 for 500g (with 125g of Sultana Bran still left over).  And this Bear will bet a LDC that the DIY version has a lot more Sultanas in it than the ready-made jobbies .

Incidentally, Bear has no particular allegiance to Tesco (exactly the opposite, in fact) - they just happened to be conveniently close when I was receiving Jab No. 2.

 

In other news:

Bear has just completed a successful mission involving a 140 mile round trip to look at granite worktops via the supplier close to Gatwick Airport; that's the longest journey I've made in over a year - all the fun of the M25 (which behaved reasonably well, fortunately).  I actually drove through the airport complex - twice - as well as along the M23; how many aircraft were seen?  Zero, zilch, diddly squat.  Strange....

I have been given four examples of granite to consider at my leisure......decisions, decisions.....

 

Next door to the worktop supplier was a classic car work shop - they kindly invited Bear inside to look at the cars being worked on, which included a very nice silver Jag XJ120; this was parked outside - the queue starts behind Bear.....

 

 

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

From that video it looks very genteel  however up on the narrow River Ant, with dozens of sailing boats and the odd terrified tourist hire boat, it's absolute chaos..

 

Today I have been mostly...  Feeling knackered.

 

SWMBO has got the urge to move that shed, so the first task today was to remove part of the deck, I ignored that, and used an angle grinder on the bolts holding the BBQ to its stand . On lifting the BBQ to its new shelf. It wouldn't fit, I'd forgotten the gas connection sticking out the side.. a masonry chisel was deployed to knock out a brick, from the side wall. Luckily that can be hidden later.

Then the BBQ fitted level and safe, but more modifications are needed to the BBQ area. But that is for future developments.

 

Then to cutting up the deck which wasn't hard,  after 20 years much is rotten. I'll recover what I can for other purposes.

SWMBO was clearing surrounding nettles and brambles, as part of this redevelopment is to make the area easier to mow.

It was getting much too hot and hooomid, so cease work was called.

SWMBO to the house, me to the boat, sheltered from the sun..

 

The keel , keel to hull joint, and the port forward quarter of the hull were sanded. Then painted, the keel and keel joint with the paint as is. I then added a large dollop of white spirit to the paint, as it was too thick for a fine finish. After a very good stir the paint seemed to be lighter in colour, which was worrying.

 

The port forward quarter was then given a coat of paint, and I'm a lot happier with the finish. 

at this point the keel got hairy.. yep Ben sneaked in and brushed against the keel leaving a coat of black fur.. good job that will need sanding again.

 

Ben then walked me , but I resisted the long route, it really is hooomid out there and down by the marshes much worse.

 

On return the hull paint was touch dry, and the colour still matched the previous coat.

unfortunately the first coat of paint has revealed much more sanding needed on the keel hull joint..

 

Oh the results of the 3RR are out, 33 boats finished roughly 1/3 of the fleet, which was more than I expected.

 

 

 

 

 

3rr_results_2021 (1).pdf

Edited June 7, 2021 by TheQ

[Tony_S]

I am sitting quietly inside at present. Neighbours are in our garden seeing how they can install the fence panels without disturbing anything on their side. Considering I have moved everything possible on my side that could possibly impede the fences  Aditi thought I might possibly say the wrong thing. Things may be happening now as I commented this morning that I had moved the panels stored by my kitchen door as my feet were bigger than the space available to walk when going out. I think I was banned finally from going out when Aditi mentioned the neighbour wanted to move our cherry tree. I said it wasn’t necessary, there was plenty of room. Surprisingly there was. I didn’t think I had any any superpowers but it seems that being able to estimate how much space something needs is mine. I have also been banned from commenting they are being installed the wrong way round! 
Tony

[Ref44]

The For Sale sign went up this morning. My initial plan was to sort out the two major storage areas, namely the loft and the garage. I started with the loft whilst my daughter is still at home as she can watch her mother whilst I'm sorting things out. The garage can wait as it will be easier to nip indoors every so often to keep an eye on SWMBO. Given the amount of stuff to be cleared I considered hiring  a skip. Oops, looking on line a lot of the material I need to get rid of can't be put in a skip. It looks like several trips to the local tip will needed. The first one was done this morning; another run will be made tomorrow. Fortunately the Zafira with all its seats down will accomodate a fair amount. Once my daughter has moved out later this week, her room can be used to crate up and store the stuff that will be moving (the unmentionable bits).

 

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon all,

 

weather fair and further post added to what is turning out to be a magnum opus on operating matters in a thread in the prototype area.  it grew as I had to correct a twit's comments but has no - in teh case of my posts - gone well beyond that.

 

Fortunately nobody has yet found ne appearance in a video on Youtube. so i'll keep quiet about where it lurks and what it concerns - that should suitably hinder everybody   I was very impressed by Chris's job - well done. 

 

Today has gone reasonably well thus far as it was our diaboiic testing day in order to provide suitable evidence for Sister Diabolical to berate us in a few weeks time (fortunately by 'phone so she can't see the grimaces as she opens fire).  I had vlunteered my red liquid last week so actually know one of  my results already and the number has dropped from 51 to 48,  I also know my weight has fgot rid of a few kilos/lbs (ably assisted no doubt by a bout of food poisoning) but on the other hand in the week before the blood test I had missed 4 days out of 7 when it came to Metformin.   Most amazing was the BP which - on the first attempt - was well inside the officially required target; last year it took 3 goes to get a result that met the target and the year before it took 5 goes.  So apart from no doubt getting a major earwigging about cholesterol it seems I might get off reasonably lightly when the day dawns and she rings in a few weeks time.

 

Enjoy the rest of your day and stay safe - especially if you're out there queueing waiting for 'garden toys' or other 'outdoor essentials' (pacakamacs and umbrellas?) to arrive at your favourite cheapo retailer.  if people want some garden toys they can come and play with my mower or hedge trimmer and do something useful.

 

 

[southern42]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Afternoon Awl,

From that video it looks very genteel  however up on the narrow River Ant, with dozens of sailing boats and the odd terrified tourist hire boat, it's absolute chaos..

 

Today I have been mostly...  Feeling knackered.

 

SWMBO has got the urge to move that shed, so the first task today was to remove part of the deck, I ignored that, and used an angle grinder on the bolts holding the BBQ to its stand . On lifting the BBQ to its new shelf. It wouldn't fit, I'd forgotten the gas connection sticking out the side.. a masonry chisel was deployed to knock out a brick, from the side wall. Luckily that can be hidden later.

Then the BBQ fitted level and safe, but more modifications are needed to the BBQ area. But that is for future developments.

 

Then to cutting up the deck which wasn't hard,  after 20 years much is rotten. I'll recover what I can for other purposes.

SWMBO was clearing surrounding nettles and brambles, as part of this redevelopment is to make the area easier to mow.

It was getting much too hot and hooomid, so cease work was called.

SWMBO to the house, me to the boat, sheltered from the sun..

 

The keel , keel to hull joint, and the port forward quarter of the hull were sanded. Then painted, the keel and keel joint with the paint as is. I then added a large dollop of white spirit to the paint, as it was too thick for a fine finish. After a very good stir the paint seemed to be lighter in colour, which was worrying.

 

The port forward quarter was then given a coat of paint, and I'm a lot happier with the finish. 

at this point the keel got hairy.. yep Ben sneaked in and brushed against the keel leaving a coat of black fur.. good job that will need sanding again.

 

Ben then walked me , but I resisted the long route, it really is hooomid out there and down by the marshes much worse.

 

On return the hull paint was touch dry, and the colour still matched the previous coat.

unfortunately the first coat of paint has revealed much more sanding needed on the keel hull joint..

 

Oh the results of the 3RR are out, 33 boats finished roughly 1/3 of the fleet, which was more than I expected.

 

 

 

 

 

3rr_results_2021 (1).pdf 43.61 kB · 1 download

 

Ah, and that was light wind sailing. I hate to think what it is like in a blow!  When watching the video, the thought crossed my mind immediately, and terrified me especially, as you point out, at seeing the moored craft along the route.  It was bad enough seeing seasoned yachtsmen in large yachts tacking in and out of the yachts moored at Beaumaris or having dinghies and jet skis prancing about you when you are moored up yourself - just watch out when you are down below making the tea when a jet skier blasts past or a motorboat's wake comings rolling in.

 

Excellent videos, by the way.  It is quite rewarding to see what it is like in other people's waters.

 

[Pacific231G]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I agree, Sanity is not the word that I would normally associate with ER's.

 

Jamie

I'm perfectly sane. My mother had me tested.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Hardly anything done today apart from a bit of shopping, I just can't find the mojo for anything. Tea has brewed so be back later.

[iL Dottore]

7 hours ago, jonny777 said:

....And why would anyone buy Kellogg's Bran Flakes at £2.50 for 750g, when the M&S version are 90p for 500g and taste just as good to me? Similarly, Sultana Bran Flakes - Kellogg's 500g for £2.99, M&S 500g for £1.40. 

As with so many things, social class, self-perception, status seeking, conspicuous consumption (and other factors) drive food purchases and consumption (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_class_differences_in_food_consumption).
There’s a whole body of research on this sort of thing - quite a lot in fact.

Presumably there’s significant interest on the part of food manufacturers in how these findings can be used to influence consumers’ buying habits.

Furthermore product container shape, colour & material, label style, design and lettering and content aggrandisement all play a role as well in influencing your choice of purchases...

 

And all to make you buy Poly Bear’s brand of X (LDC?) instead of The Stationmaster’s brand of X  (LDC?) - to make up a fictional example......

[JohnDMJ]

Good Evening all, but I'll soon put a stop to that!

 

Dull, overcast and warm probably sums up the day; nothing eventful to report.

 

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I am sitting quietly inside at present. Neighbours are in our garden seeing how they can install the fence panels without disturbing anything on their side. Considering I have moved everything possible on my side that could possibly impede the fences  Aditi thought I might possibly say the wrong thing. Things may be happening now as I commented this morning that I had moved the panels stored by my kitchen door as my feet were bigger than the space available to walk when going out. I think I was banned finally from going out when Aditi mentioned the neighbour wanted to move our cherry tree. I said it wasn’t necessary, there was plenty of room. Surprisingly there was. I didn’t think I had any any superpowers but it seems that being able to estimate how much space something needs is mine. I have also been banned from commenting they are being installed the wrong way round! 
Tony

 

At the risk of opening the great toilet paper debate, I've always understood it to be that the owner of the fence has the back, i.e. the support side and that the plain, finished, side points to the neighbour. I have three fences in my back garden, only one of which is mine and this is fitted with the post supports on my side. The fence next to that only presents the final cladding. The third presents the post supports but belongs to me neighbour who has an identical fence installation on the side of his garden!

 

32 minutes ago, Pacific231G said:

I'm perfectly sane. My mother had me tested.

 

On the other hand, you'd be proven totally in Seine to go swimming through the centre of Paris!

 

Hat, coat, fast taxi...

[laurenceb]

Please, pretty please Andy can we have the groan button back. Please

[jamie92208]

On 07/06/2021 at 19:41, JohnDMJ said:

Good Evening all, but I'll soon put a stop to that!

 

Dull, overcast and warm probably sums up the day; nothing eventful to report.

 

 

At the risk of opening the great toilet paper debate, I've always understood it to be that the owner of the fence has the back, i.e. the support side and that the plain, finished, side points to the neighbour. I have three fences in my back garden, only one of which is mine and this is fitted with the post supports on my side. The fence next to that only presents the final cladding. The third presents the post supports but belongs to me neighbour who has an identical fence installation on the side of his garden!

 

 

On the other hand, you'd be proven totally in Seine to go swimming through the centre of Paris!

 

Hat, coat, fast taxi...

 

You asked.

 

Jamie

Edited April 21, 2022 by jamie92208

[southern42]

1 hour ago, Pacific231G said:

I'm perfectly sane. My mother had me tested.

 

Being of a generally quiet and serious nature, when I got to 40, I decided it was time to be a bit silly! I didn't think it would last!

 

 

Edited June 7, 2021 by southern42

[polybear]

14 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

And all to make you buy Poly Bear’s brand of X (LDC?) instead of The Stationmaster’s brand of X  (LDC?) - to make up a fictional example......

 

Not that Bear would recommend you go scoffing it, but it does annoy me (to the point of no longer buying it) that a four-pack of Imperial Leather soap bars contains (unsurprisingly) four bars of soap, each individually wrapped and inside an outer packaging.  Added to which each bar has a little label on it.  That's plenty of unnecessary dross all going into landfill.  A cheapo brand has four bars inside a wrapping - seems to work just fine too.  And that is an important reason in Bear's book for buying it.

 

7 minutes ago, JohnDMJ said:

At the risk of opening the great toilet paper debate, I've always understood it to be that the owner of the fence has the back, i.e. the support side and that the plain, finished, side points to the neighbour. I have three fences in my back garden, only one of which is mine and this is fitted with the post supports on my side. The fence next to that only presents the final cladding. The third presents the post supports but belongs to me neighbour who has an identical fence installation on the side of his garden!

 

 

 

That's Bear's understanding too, though I've no idea if there is some obscure law somewhere defining that, or if it is just considered to be "good manners".

Bear owns all three fences in the back garden; the one at the bottom was put up by the council and I've got the "scruffier" side (the arris rail-side of feather-edge fencing - which suits me as it makes it more difficult to climb the fence into Bear's garden) whilst the other two (lap fence panels & concrete posts) were bought and installed by Bear - and I've got the better side (though there's not a huge difference in it).  I was aware of the convention mentioned - but took the view that (a) I've paid for it, and (b) I've killed meself putting it up - so I'll have the decent side, thanks very much.  No complaints have been received.....

[leopardml2341]

Well, first day back at the desk after 9 days away and it was  close to  chaos.....

 

Feeling a bit 'cba' at the moment.

 

Jab number 2 tomorrow morning......

[PupCam]

22 minutes ago, polybear said:

I was aware of the convention mentioned - but took the view that (a) I've paid for it, and (b) I've killed meself putting it up - so I'll have the decent side, thanks very much.  No complaints have been received.....

 Puppers used the same principle when he replaced part of his fence last year.   Lucky I did it then, I couldn't do it now!

[PhilJ W]

I am responsible for the fences on both sides of my property. Thats because its the last house in the street. It suits me fine as in the front I have matching fences either side.

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

I forgot to mention that I was very surprised yesterday that nobody broadcast the opening of the new memorial to British forces who died in the battle for Normandy. Fortunately,  Broadcasting House mentioned it and that it was going to be shown on line.

There was a summary package broadcast on at least one of the US network news broadcasts that I watched.